The Top 10 Technology Storylines For the 2017 NFL Season

As the New England Patriots hoist their Super Bowl banner and open the 2017 NFL season by hosting the Kansas City Chiefs on Thursday night, here are the top 10 technology storylines to watch this fall.

1. Amazon streaming

The debut of Thursday Night Football livestreaming last year on Twitter went so well — an average of 3.5 million unique viewers per game with 55 percent under the age of 25 — that Amazon quintupled the previous year’s rights fee to $50 million in order to pry the games away the short-message platform. How the audience demographics change with games streaming on a subscription site (via Amazon Prime Video) rather than a social media site where users are more likely to congregate anyway remains to be seen.

2. Wearables

Tensions over data access could mount. This spring, Whoop partnered with the NFL Players Association to ensure players have access to and ownership of all their personal tracking data for exercise, recovery and sleep metrics. The league, meanwhile, has partnered with Zebra Technologies for four seasons now to embed radio-frequency identification chips on players’ pads to provide movement data such as speed, acceleration and location; this year, every game football will also have an RFID tag to compile location, speed, and rotation data. Two-thirds of NFL teams use Catapult GPS wearables to monitor practice data, and a handful use STATSports. A rep for Motus Global said “several” NFL teams are using the MotusQB sleeve to monitor workload and analyze biomechanics. (The company run by Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, TB12, even endorses Under Armour’s connected sleepwear recovery system harnesses far infrared energy and comes with a sleep monitoring app.)

3. Head health

Lab testing conducted by the NFL and NFLPA rated startup the Zero1 helmet from Vicis No. 1 for reducing head-impact severity. While prior research has shown that no helmet does well in preventing concussions — they are better at protecting against skull fractures and brain contusions — Vicis’ innovative helmet has a fundamental design change that, many hope, could reduce the risk of head trauma. A reported 25 of 32 NFL teams placed orders earlier this year.

Though the NFL’s brain research partnership with the National Institutes of Health terminated early after the league withdrew from a study after a grant was awarded to a neuroscientist who had been critical of the league practices, the NFL has pledged $60 million over five years for what has been dubbed the Engineering Roadmap, a stimulus program to drive innovation around protective equipment; the HeadHealthTECH Symposium: Fundamental Biomechanics of Concussion in the NFL was held last fall.

There are also new products aiming to help triage players who have potentially suffered a concussion. Motus is expected to soon launch Motus Concussion, which employs a headband and chest strap with sensors to conduct balance and mobility exams that can help assess whether a player needs further evaluation from a medical professional.

4. Pace of game

The NFL is cognizant of lengthening game time. A few years ago, Sunday doubleheaders were pushed all the way back to 4:25 p.m. ET to avoid overlapping with 1 p.m. games. Even commissioner Roger Goodell emphasized the issue to an email to fans; of the tedious commercial break-kickoff-commercial break combination, he wrote, “I hate that too. Our goal is to eliminate it.” As a result, the league is giving referees tablets to review replays rather than require a trip to the sideline. Commercial breaks will be reduced from five per quarter to four, albeit lengthened overall even if Fox reportedly will air some six-second ads, taking a cue from YouTube. The use of biometric eye-tracking technology helped inform some of these decisions.

Years of altar serving in the Catholic church may have prepared me to hold the review tablet in NFL games. pic.twitter.com/JMX0hzNqJ8

5. Intel freeD

The Emmy Award-winning technology producing 360-degree replays, which debuted two seasons ago in Super Bowl 50, will now be available in 11 stadiums. The home venues for the Baltimore Ravens, Houston Texans and San Francisco 49ers already had that capacity, but Intel has expanded the installations of the necessary 38 ultra-high definition cameras with 5K video resolution to the stadiums of the Arizona Cardinals, Carolina Panthers, Cleveland Browns, Indianapolis Colts, Kansas City Chiefs, Minnesota Vikings (host of Super Bowl LII in February), New England Patriots and Washington Redskins. All eight AFC and NFC divisions are now represented.

6. Mixed Reality

The whole mixed-reality spectrum — from virtual reality to augmented reality and everything in between — is becoming an increasingly popular preparation tool. Everyone from quarterbacks to referees are using virtual-reality provider STRIVR (in which the NFL has invested) while the Baltimore Ravens became the first client of Mixed River’s mixed-reality Pre-Game Prep and a fantasy sports game powered by augmented reality is in development.

7. Social media policies

The NFL has reversed a policy implemented last year that prohibited teams from tweeting highlights that hadn’t been disseminated by official league channels first — which led to a brief spate of amusing team-produced spoofs —and, in fact, the executive office is encouraging a broader partnership. Twitter will air a 30-minute live show daily from Sunday through Thursday featuring NFL Network talent. Both Twitter and Periscope will be used for behind-the-scenes glimpses and insights.

8. Esports

To broaden its appeal to a younger demographic, the NFL is collaborating with Electronic Arts on the Madden NFL Club Championship in which all 32 franchises will sponsor local tournaments to determine a representative who will compete in the finals, at which a $1.15 million purse will be dispersed. The NFL is the first to have full participation from each member team, thereby turning this into the largest competitive gaming commitment by a U.S. professional sports league.

9. Mercedes-Benz Stadium

The new home of the Atlanta Falcons boasts the most connectivity and technological advances in the league, highlighted by a 1,000-foot-long, 360-degree Halo video board, 1,800 wireless access points, 4,000 miles of fiber optic cables and digital ticket turn-styles.

10. Robots

No, really. The product of Dartmouth engineering students and championed by the school’s football coach, Buddy Teevens, the MVP (Mobile Virtual Player) tackling dummy won the athlete training category in the NFL’s First and Future competition this offseason for top tech startup. Teams like the Pittsburgh Steelers and Arizona Cardinals have used the device. It’s a remote-controlled, mobile tackling dummy that will enable players to practice tackling without subjecting teammates to additional contact.

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About Joe Lemire

Joe is a SportTechie senior writer chronicling how the primary driver of sports innovation is shifting from X’s and O’s to 1’s and 0’s as data points and technology are overtaking tactics and tradition in shaping the preparation, participation, and consumption of modern sports. He is a former Sports Illustrated staff writer whose work has appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Grantland and Vocativ.
A Virginia native raised in Massachusetts, Joe now lives in New York City with his wife and son.
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